The 2023 U.S. Open was a memorable major, highlighted by Coco Gauff’s dramatic run to the biggest title of her career and Novak Djokovic’s dominance en route to his 24th Grand Slam triumph.
Andy Roddick, who won the U.S. Open exactly 20 years ago and is now a tennis channel analyst and Betway correspondent, recently weighed in on what he witnessed in New York. Unsurprisingly, Roddick’s key takeaways from the season’s fourth and final slam focused on Gauff and Djokovic. The former world No. 1 was also impressed by fellow American Ben Shelton, who–at just 20 years old–made it all the way to the semifinals.
Roddick won his first and only Grand Slam at 21 years old. Gauff is 19.
“I think he’d been running a lot of those parallels with me from 20 years ago, but the difference is that she’s not going to stop at one,” Roddick wrote. “There are dominant forces in women’s tennis, but I don’t think three players are going to win 66 of the next however many slams, so there’s a much better runway for her.
“With different women’s winners at the four slams this year, there’s an intriguing level of parity. It seems to be building towards men’s tennis in the ’80s, where you had a bunch of players with the potential to win a handful rather than everything resting on one or two people.”
On the men’s side, however, Djokovic remains a dominant force well ahead of everyone else–even though he has been flip-flopping with Carlos Alcaraz for the No. 1 ranking throughout this season. The 36-year-old Serb won three of the four majors in 2023, losing only to Alcaraz in a five-set thriller in the Wimbledon final.
“The dominance of Novak and the way that he’s able to win this consistently is just absurd,” Roddick praised. “He’s probably the most reliable player that we’ve ever had in the game. I wouldn’t bet against him on any given day, on any surface, in any format.”
On the way to his fourth U.S. Open title, Djokovic ended Shelton’s run in the semifinals. It was a relatively straightforward result in three sets with only one tiebreaker, but it made–and continues to make–more headlines than any other match at the tournament because of the aftermath in which Djokovic mocked Shelton’s “dialed in” phone celebration.
Djokovic fans will vehemently disagree, but Roddick liked what he saw out of the youngster.
“I loved Ben Shelton’s exuberance and the way he didn’t shy away from the moment,” Roddick commented. “He got to the semis and might have been people’s fourth, fifth, maybe sixth pick for an American to do that–so he’s really inserted himself into the momentum that U.S. tennis has right now.
“I talked to Ben’s dad post-tournament and told him that Ben can improve on almost everything in his game. But the starting point for that learning process is being No. 20 in the world and you can’t teach someone how to serve 150 mph, so that’s a hell of a jumping-off point.”
agreed with Djokovic on all counts